Employees at Schneck Medical Center recently celebrated an EPiC milestone in giving back to the hospital.

Members of Schneck’s Employee Partners Invested in Caring group have donated $1 million over the past 14 years to help support the hospital’s role in serving the community.

In 2001, six employees got together and formed EPiC. Four of those founders — Pam Bobb, Rick Perkins, Joyce Prange and Carolyn Benter — still work at Schneck and remain a part of EPiC’s mission.

“It’s just a way for employees to give back at whatever level they want,” said Bobb, who works in Schneck’s health information department.

Whether it’s a commitment of $10 a year, $100 a year or $1,000 for 10 years, every contribution adds up to being able to do more, Bobb said.

Employees can choose to have the money deducted from their payroll or can make a one-time donation.

Money raised by EPiC has been used to help fund a variety of projects at the hospital, which in turn has helped free up dollars for more expensive investments such as the purchase of advanced technology.

Without EPiC support for smaller projects, the hospital may not have been able to purchase its DaVinci robotic surgical system, which allows for less invasive surgical procedures, resulting in quicker recovery times and shorter hospital stays.

Other projects that have received EPiC funds include $250,000 for the completion of the cancer center, $150,000 for the purchase of a telemetry patient monitoring system and around $50,000 for the heliport to land medical helicopters closer to the hospital.

EPiC dollars also were used to purchase a transport vehicle to move patients to and from different areas on the hospital campus and to purchase exercise equipment for the employee fitness center.

“The community needs Schneck to offer these services so that people don’t have to drive to bigger cities for treatment,” Bobb said. “Also, you never know if it’s going to be you or me or a loved one needing treatment, so that’s why it’s important.”

Warren Forgey, president and CEO of Schneck, said EPiC funds and other donations to the Schneck Foundation provide an alternative way to serve all patients in the community.

He has been a member of EPiC since it began.

“We serve all patients, regardless of their ability to pay, and there are certain services we likely couldn’t provide without that support,” he said. “The Foundation and EPiC are instrumental in bringing in funds to address the shortfall in certain service areas.”

Bobb said like any new initiative, support for EPiC came gradually, but has grown over the years to include around 650 employees. The hospital has more than 800 workers.

“As of now, we have 80 percent of our employees giving back to EPiC,” she said. “Our goal is 85 percent.”

When the fundraising effort began, Bobb said $1 million was never a thought.

“We just kept plugging along each year,” she said. “We know we are helping, but honestly that amount never entered our mind. I knew eventually we would hit it, but I didn’t know when.”

To hit the $1 million mark, more than $100,000 is given back to the hospital annually, she added.

“We are very proud of our employees,” Bobb said. “Their generosity has impacted the lives of so many individuals in the community. Without everyone pulling together, it wouldn’t happen. It takes a big group willing to help and we have it.”

EPiC is not a unique program and many other hospitals across the country have similar programs, but Schneck’s is one of the more effective ones, Bobb said.

“A lot of hospitals don’t have as good of participation as we do,” she said. “They use us as an example to set up programs like ours at other hospitals.”

Forgey said the percentage of employees involved with EPiC is a testament to the number of people there who care about the community.

“It speaks to the compassion our employees have for the organization of Schneck Medical Center and the ability to treat all patients in the communities we serve,” he said.

There are different levels of support that employees can give, starting with a $10 annual membership. A Health Builder membership is $100 a year and a Society level membership is $1,000 a year.

“We have several in that level and many in the health builder level,” Bobb said.

One hundred percent of donations goes to the projects, with no dollars being used for hospital events or administrative work, Bobb said.

In 2003, EPiC committee members decided they not only wanted to help support the hospital, but also fellow employees.

So they started a new humanitarian fund, where $10,000 of EPIC donations is set aside each year to be used to assist hospital employees facing financial hardships.

“This is strictly for employees helping employees,” Bobb said. “If something comes up that is a financial difficulty, such as a fire or flood or someone is diagnosed with cancer or has a death in the family, they can go to the foundation office and get an application.”

That application is presented to a committee which then decides how much assistance to provide.

“We can give them up to $1,500 at one time to help them out,” she said.

A total of 123 Schneck employees have benefited from EPiC’s humanitarian fund, receiving around $100,000 altogether.

Benter, of Brownstown, said being able to help her fellow co-workers makes her feel good about giving to EPiC.

She works in the hospital’s respiratory and sleep services department.

“Success stories are always encouraging and being able to help our own employees through the humanitarian fund is very rewarding,” she said.

Although $1 million is a lot of money, Benter said it’s no surprise they have raised that much.

“It really doesn’t surprise me that we have reached this huge milestone,” Benter said. “We have accomplished so many of our projects, all because our employees are about where they work.”